Computer viruses have been getting a lot of hype these days. We are inundated with the "scare" of viruses coming to attack our computer and eat our data. Well, despite the hype that movies and the 6 o'clock news promote, viruses (or virii) are just little computer programs, and it is very easy to protect yourself from them.

In this article, we'll show you:

• What a computer virus is
• Who makes viruses and WHY
• The one step to virus protection
• How to avoid getting computer viruses
• What to do if you have one

I Have a Virus -- Am I Sick?

No, you are not sick; your computer is. A computer virus isn't a disease. It's not the plague, and your computer parts won't fall apart if you happen to get one. A virus is just a piece of software, just like Microsoft Word or Quicken. It runs on your hard drive, and it can't hurt your computer when your computer is turned off.

A virus is usually a very small program, so small that you won't even notice it if you aren't looking for it. Most viruses attach themselves to other bits of data on your computer. For example, viruses can attach themselves to word-processing documents, spreadsheets, the program files themselves, or they can even hide themselves in special parts of your hard drive.

Once they hide or burrow into another file, they wait. They wait for some sort of event to occur, and that is when they strike. What kind of event do they wait for? Well, it could wait for a certain time, like 12:00 midnight. Or it could wait for a particular date (one famous virus only attacks on Michelangelo's birthday). Or it could wait until you start a particular program, or open up a particular document. Basically, thy can strike at any time.

What they do once they strike is different from virus to virus. Some are harmless: they will display a message from the person who wrote the virus, or they will play a tune on your computer speakers. Others are much more dangerous. Some viruses will corrupt your word-processing documents, changing letters and inserting random words. Some will slowly corrupt your programs so that you cannot run them anymore. And some will go so far as to ERASE the data on your hard drive. You could lose everything!

"Lamers"

Internet geeks have a term for losers that is very fitting here: "lamers". Since viruses are just computers programs, the people who write viruses are well-skilled (usually) programmers. Unfortunately, these programmers have nothing better to do, or worse, they are anti-social. The results of their time-wasting is the common computer virus.

In the early days, virus-programmers were disgruntled engineers, hoping to throw a kink in their former companies computer system. But true engineers have forgone this petty and simple attack. Nowadays, viruses are written by pathetic guys in their teens and twenties. Some programmers try to write a virus just to see if they can -- these viruses are usually not malicious in nature. But many others do it maliciously, hoping to gain some notoriety and excitement in their otherwise dull existence.

The One Step to Foolproof Virus Protection

So you are afraid of losing data to these little monsters, huh? Do you have important data on your hard drive that you can't afford to lose? Letters, budgets, e-mail, even last year's tax data! Well, if you cannot afford to lose it, there's one thing you can do to make sure you keep it: make extra copies! That's right, BACKUP!

Make three or four copies of your data and store it in a safe place. Heck, store the different copies in SEVERAL different places. Even a bank safety deposit box isn't too extreme. This is your personal and financial data, remember?

Two years ago I met a student who made four copies of her graduate thesis because she was afraid of viruses. While traveling back to school in Washington DC all the way from Colorado, she kept one copy of her thesis (on disk) in the trunk of her car, another disk in the glove compartment, another in her luggage, and one last disk in her backpack. Guess what? On her way back, she drove right into a flash flood. Three of the diskettes were completely destroyed. When she brought the fourth one to my office, I actually had to dry the inside of the disk. Luckily, I got her thesis out of it, and boy, was she glad she was paranoid about making back-up copies.

Moral of the story: backup once, twice, thrice. It may be a pain, but it's never enough when you need it.

Avoidance: The Best Cure

There are a lot of conflicting stories about how you can get a virus. But here, we'll give you a straight answer.

You can only get viruses from a diskette, or a file that you save on your hard drive.

That's all. There's a popular hoax going around the Internet that preys on the unknowing. It's called "Join The Crew", and it may be the oldest Internet hoax still alive. An e-mail is sent around to a bunch of people, telling them not to open any e-mails with the subject "Join the Crew". It says that the "Join the Crew" e-mail is a virus, and that it will wipe out your entire hard drive. It's a hoax. Here's why:

You cannot get a virus just by reading an e-mail message.

However, viruses CAN travel through e-mail. Here's how: some people attach files to their e-mail; these files are called attachments and are an excellent way to share information. If I wrote a budget analysis and I wanted to send it to my boss, I could simply write an e-mail and attach the budget file. Let's say the budget file has a virus in it. When my boss receives my e-mail and reads it, he is in no danger. But when he opens up my attachment, his computer will contract the virus.

You CAN, and often will, get a virus from an e-mail attachment.

E-Mail attachments are popular these days, with Christmas cards and little animated games being sent left and right over the Internet. Many of these have viruses, so be very careful. To avoid viruses, follow these steps:

• Never let a diskette be used on your machine unless you are sure it is virus-free
• Never run those silly attachments that people get through e-mail -- you don't know where it has been
• If you must run an attachment, make certain that it is coming from a reliable source

Getting Healthy Again

What if you already have a virus? Or if you want to find out if you have one? The best way is to purchase a virus protection program. We will rank the best ones in another article, however, most of the popular virus protection programs are available free for a short evaluation period. I urge everyone to download one of these "trial versions" from the sites on our sidebar. Find out which one you like best and buy it. It will likely save you lots of heartache in the future. (And you may want to get flash-flood insurance, too!)